Xavier University hosted the 26th Mindanao Association of Museums (MAM) Regional Summit as part of the National Heritage Month celebration with the theme “Kabuwadan: Transmission of heritage from one generation to another.”
The four-day summit held on May 27 to 30 was frontlined by MAM president Dr Erlinda Burton who is also the curator of XU - Museo de Oro.
In her speech, Burton underscored the role of museums in achieving sustainable development, especially in Mindanao.
“As time changes, museums are not only repositories of cultural and historical artifacts but they have become instruments of sustainable development…”
She added: “Over the years, museums can now be found not just in educational institutions but also in the indigenous communities such as the tulugan (community hall) where children can learn their native (lumad) language and traditions.”
The summit also served as an avenue for museum curators and administrators to discuss on the modern trends in documentation, archiving, and how to adapt with the present demands of the people, more so with the technologically equipped generation.
Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts (XCCA) director Hobart P Savior said, “I believe this MAM Summit will definitely affirm the commitment in promoting cultural understanding through our respective museums.”
“We are not just storehouses of knowledge and wealth but we are also initiators of programs for the community. In this manner, we hand down our kabuwadan (our gifts) to all — without the limitations from select academic interests — and also pave the mainstreaming of museum efforts, programs and exhibits to all.
Savior highlighted in his message, “All citizens have the right to know their gifts, their identity, their past, their tradition and their culture.”
Other discussions during the summit included museology, object acquisition and cataloguing, how to organize an exhibition and the plans of MAM for 2016.
Around forty MAM participants toured the Museo de Oro on the third day and the La Castilla Museum of Liceo de Cagayan University (LdeCU) and the Museum of Three Cultures of Capitol University (CU) on the last day of the summit.
Founded in 1989, the 26-year-old MAM is the country’s oldest regional association of public and private museums in the country.
Two well-known figures formed the association: Fr Francisco Demetrio SJ, who is also the founder of Museo de Oro, and Mamitua Saber, a Maranao educator who established Mindanao’s first museum, the Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Arts, which was endowed by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan.